[A geography lesson. Paul smiles broadly, straightening up a bit without dislodging Falco, and points southeast. He doesn't have to look to the stars to get his bearings, but he does anyway, marking the shepherd stars.]

It's about two hours that way by sail. This is an uninhabited island. It's kept that way to preserve the biosphere. Did you know islands have some of the most unique life on any worlds? It's because they're isolated. Everything on them that can't swim or fly far enough to reach another shore evolves within the confines of one patch of land.

There's no buildings here, but there are four species of lark that you can't find anywhere else on the whole planet.

[This is information that Falco will obviously find as compelling and wonderful as Paul does.]

This is as much my home as my house is. All of Caladan is. [His smile tips, goes lightly wistful.] This is where my salt is from.

[A Mariana thought on a world the Pthumerian has never tread. Paul wonders if any part of him is still made up of the atoms of this world, if the transmutation of Trench summoned them with his body and his soul, or if every part of him is newly fashioned of alien particles.]